


Villains Don't Deserve Happy Endings

by AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 06:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4512294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell/pseuds/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not until later, when he looks up at her from the cold ground. His fingers stained red with his own blood, that he realizes the truth.<br/>The truth so visible in her dark eyes that he wonders if her team can see it, too.<br/>The perfect match made in hell, Ian thinks and he can't help but smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Villains Don't Deserve Happy Endings

**Villains Don't Deserve Happy Endings**

**.**

**.**

"And what is it that you do, Lauren?"

It's an Irish pub in Boston, not exactly the right place to find your one true love, where Ian Doyle meets his perfect match.

A woman he knows will be the death of him. Because he's a villain and villains don't get happy endings.

.

She is too good to be true and Ian doesn't need one of his own men to tell him that. He already figured it out himself.

He knows Lauren Reynolds is lying, knows she's not who she pretends to be.  _Fuck,_  he doesn't even know her real name. But the way she looks at him when she thinks he's too busy to even recognize her presence, the way she looks at him when she tells him that she loves him when she thinks he's asleep - that look is real. Honest.

It's that look that makes him keep her alive.

When he tells her that he has no idea what their life will look like it's true, he has no idea. He never thought about keeping a woman at his side. He never wanted to. But she is different.

And he means it, when he says that he wants her in his life. And not only in his.

He'd watched her for months. Her and the boy she thinks is his housekeeper's. Watched her running around with him, playing hide and seek in the house or in the garden. Their laughter filling the air and making the sun shine brighter.

Making him feel alive again.

He tells her about Declan, tells her that the blonde boy with eyes as blue as the sky is his own. And that he needs a mother. That he wants her to raise him as her own.

When she rejects his offer and tells him that she can't raise his son to become a warrior, she falls apart right in front of his eyes. Every word that leaves her mouth breaks down walls, revealing the person she really is.

And he can't stop wondering, why she can't see how much they're alike.

The offer to get him out, to come with her and live a normal life is one last plea. Giving everything away.

Emily Prentiss.

_What a lovely name._

_._

He's not surprised when her people show up to arrest him, he'd already been expecting them. He's standing on the balcony of his Tuscan villa, watching her from above. His phone pressed against his ear to give one last order.

_I'll come and find you, my love._

And he knows one day he will.

He keeps quiet for over two years. It's what he was trained for all his life, to withstand any torture. To not give anything away, under any circumstances.

_There is no such thing as pain,_  his own father used to tell him when he was a kid.  _There's just weakness. And you're not weak. You're a warrior._

It's not until they show him pictures of his dead son, that he knows he'd been told wrong all his life. And he knows she must have put him in her profile. Knows because she'd been the only person he ever trusted with that secret.

He breaks and shatters and screams for days, weeks, maybe even months. And they laugh and keep laughing with every tear he spills.

And Ian Doyle knows, one day he'll get himself out of this hell. He'll find her and when he does, he'll make her suffer.

It's that thought that keeps him alive.

.

When he breaks out of prison five years later, he already has a plan. And Emily Prentiss is going to be the grand finale.

He's disappointed to learn that there's nothing he can tear away from her. Nothing that would make her suffer like he does. No husband, no kids, no loving family. Just her teammates who are far too busy chasing their own demons.

And Ian wonders why she didn't get herself a nice, boring husband and a few little brats of her own? What's the reason she hides herself from the world in a tower at the end of town?

He keeps his distance, watches her tremble in fear from afar. Makes sure she knows he's on his way, makes sure she knows he's already watching. And it's so much fun to see her on her knees again. Even when it's only to look under her car.

_As if he would just blow her up._

She's waiting for him, sitting in the dark with a cup of coffee in her hands. And it's ridiculous that she looks even more beautiful than she did seven years ago.

Her skin so pale and flawless like a child's, her lips the darkest shade of red. Her hair so dark it's almost black. He leans back on his chair, his cold blue eyes meeting her dark ones for the first time in years. And he can't help but smile. She looks like Snow White, he thinks. Declan's favorite fairytale. The one she used to read him a million times.

And Ian almost laughs. _Tearing out her heart will be so much fun._

It's adorable when she tells him she's going to end him if he comes near her team. Defending those people, who don't even care who she really is. He tells her not to worry, that she's the only one he wants. That her people are innocent.

Unlike her.

She blinks. And he smiles.

.

Burning the four leaf clover in her flesh, is a message. For her and for her team. That she'll always belong with him no matter what. Something she sure as hell already knows.

A message that's going to tell all her dirty secrets when they come for her dead body. Too bad he won't be there to watch.

It's touching to see her break. To see her fall apart right in font of his eyes, just so she can regain composure all over again. The strongest woman he ever met. The only woman he'd ever been interested in keeping at his side.

And he remembers, remembers all those nights, all those times he touched her. Kissed her. Made her come undone in his arms. And he wishes they could go back, back to that time and do it all over again. Do it right this time.

For him, for her. And for Declan.

But her time is up and he has his gun against her temple, ready to take her life. It's what she deserves after all and he has nothing left to lose.

The second she tells him that she'd been the one holding the gun on those pictures, he knows his son never died. Knows because no matter how much she might have played him, she loved his son like her own. And she would never have laid a hand on him.

And suddenly everything makes sense. And all he can think about is Declan. The son he never lost. The son she kept safe and hidden. The son she pretended to kill in order to keep him alive.

The loss he suffered for so many years, the vengeance he took on all those people - everything comes crashing down on him at once and he hits her even harder just to get those images out of his head.

Watching her cry out and scream in agony doesn't feel as good as he thought it would. But he keeps raging, yelling. Blindly grabbing the first thing he gets a hold of.

The next thing he knows, there's blood spilling from the wound where he stabbed her. She's staring. Stumbling, falling to the floor. Gasping for air.

Dying.

He hovers over her in an instant, tries to get her to look at him. Begs her to tell him where she took Declan. But even now, on the verge of dying she still won't budge. And a part of him admires her.

When he hears gunshots he runs. Disappears into the darkness to get his son back. Once and for all.

.

He watches her funeral from afar. Watches them carry her casket down the lawn, their faces drawn with sadness and despair. But to Ian's surprise, it's the youngest who looks like he's going to shatter. And Ian wonders if she even knew that the boy had been in love with her.

He keeps hiding behind a tree, watches them closely. One after another, searching their faces to confirm his suspicions.

In the end he finds what he's looking for when the blonde, looks up at her former boss. Shares a look of unspoken knowledge, that confirms what Ian already suspected.

Emily Prentiss never died.

They're going to bury an empty casket.

_What a surprise._

.

Finding his son takes him a lot longer than he thought it would and he has to admit that Emily did a pretty good job at hiding him.

As well as giving him a fairytale life.

He watches Declan for days. Wonders if they could have lived that life together, the three of them, as a family. If he had agreed to leave his old life behind when she asked him to.

And he wonders if she'd really wanted to live this life with him. If she would have left her own. If she still would if he found her again. Because a part of him already knows he won't stop looking for her until he does. He'll get her back, as well as his son.

Getting arrested by Derek Morgan is almost fun, toying with those heartbroken feelings about the loss of his friend. And Ian wonders what's going to happen when they find out the truth. That their beloved Emily never even died in the first place.

It doesn't take long before she shows up in DC, storms straight in the interrogation room.  _Of course,_  he says and welcomes her with a smile. Just to let her know that he already knew anyway. That she never really tricked him to begin with.

The only thing Ian never planned had been Chloe. That useless woman who gave birth to Declan only because he tied her to a bed for seven months. And he regrets not having her killed when he had the chance. He should have strangled her to death like he always dreamed about after she tried to kill his unborn child.

In the end he tells Emily what she needs him to, after all they're goal is the same. They both want to take their  _son_  back home.

He's stuck with Emily and the boy genius on a goddamn helicopter and the way Charming is still looking at his princess is so sickening Ian wants to kill them both.

He leans back on his seat, shuts his eyes and realizes how close she's sitting beside him. It's so close he can smell the scent of her shampoo, the faint hint of lavender. And for a moment he's lost in a memory of a hot summer night in Tuscany. Lauren Reynolds lying in his arms, telling him how much she loves him. Talking about the future.

And just like that, he can't resist the urge to touch her hand. Surprisingly he manages, even though he's handcuffed. His fingers brushing over hers.

She flinches, stares down at his hand and up into his eyes. For a moment he's sure she's going to punch or shoot him, but she doesn't move her hand away.

She leans back, looks out into the darkness and Ian thinks that she really is full of surprises.

.

It's not until later, when he looks up at her from the cold ground. His fingers stained red with his own blood, that he realizes the truth.

The truth so visible in her dark eyes that he wonders if her team can see it, too.

_The perfect match made in hell,_ Ian thinks and he can't help but smile. He watches her, his son pressed against her chest. A whole life flashing before his eyes, a life they're never going to live.

"I'm sorry, son," he tells Declan. His fingers reaching for the sky captured in his eyes.

.

"And what is it that you do, Lauren?"

It had been an Irish pub in Boston, not exactly the right place to find your one true love, where Ian Doyle met his perfect match.

A woman he knew would be the death of him. Because he'd been a villain, and villains don't get happy endings.

**.**

**.**

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I borrowed the amazing villain line from Once Upon A Time 3x11.


End file.
